Kevin Kline in a scene from 'The Emperor's Club'.
Today we do a new review of another title that deals with the world of education. In this case we rescue a movie from 2002, 'The Emperor's Club', directed by Michael Hoffman and interpreted by: Kevin kline, Emile Hirsch, Embeth Davidtz, Rob Morrow, Edward Herrmann, and Harris Yulin, among others.
The script, by Neil Tolkin, introduces us to William Hundert, a liberal professor at an exclusive college in the United States and Sedgewick Bell, a wealthy, capricious, hooligan teenager living in the shadow of his powerful father. Despite the young man's rebellion, the teacher decides to instill in him the values that the school defends through a curious way of teaching history. Finally, after much mischief on the part of Sedgewick and much patience on the part of Professor Hundert, a strong friendship is born between them. The two will meet again 20 years later, when the young man is a powerful businessman.
In addition to applaud Kevin Kline's performance in the role of William Hundert, I can say that the film has several very significant moments. Perhaps one of the best when William tells Sedgewick Bell that as Aristophanes said: «Youth ages, immaturity is overcome, ignorance can be educated and drunkenness passes; but stupidity is forever. A date with a lot of juice, and in addition to those that do not expire (note that its author lived between 444 BC and 385 BC). There are still students who could use meditating on it, even some teachers.
Another great moment of the film is when Hundert argues with the Virginia senator about his son, and tells him that he wants to "mold his character", to which the father (totally unconcerned about the formation of his son) replies that he take charge “To teach him dates and battles, which he will already mold the character of his son”. And of a character that is not worked on by anyone, as happens in the tape, the results that are obtained are obtained, but I do not want to say more because I will disembowel the argument, only to recover another quote from Hundert: «The character of a man is his destiny. I'll just add, what is a good film, with a final reflection on what it is to succeed in life, on moral triumph and social triumph, very different and separated at times.
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